The Soup Topic (2007–2012)

[rooftop1000]

I just made broccoli soup last night in the pressure cooker; I had some broccoli that I'd forgotten about, so soup was the only option. I started with an onion sauteed in some butter, then added the broccoli and some white wine and cooked that until most of the wine evaporated. Then I added four cups of stock and cooked it under pressure for 15 minutes. I pureed it and added a couple tablespoons of cream. It tasted great, looked not so good. Is there any cure for olive-gray vegetable soups?

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nice sharp yellow cheddar cheese makes it look better

tracey

[Kerry Beal]

I've got a nice batch of split pea soup in the freezer right now.

I get the bones from the spiral cut hams at the Honey Ham Company store when they have them, keep them in the freezer to serve as the base for pea soups or baked beans. Love to put a bit of the Honey Ham in the soup right at the end, along with some diced potatoes and carrots.

[arosenwald]

My first soup of the year was a roasted tomato soup, using some nice canned whole tomatoes that were on sale at the supermarket. Roasted up the tomatoes in the oven with a sprinkle of sugar and salt, then simmered with some stock and some reserved juice. Seasoned with some cayenne pepper, and spiked with goldfish crackers.

Beats the hell out of Campbell's any day of the week.

[emilyr]

I made a 16 bean soup right after New Year's. I'd never made one before, but the bag of beans was on sale at the grocery store (like 99cents, I think) and we had both smoked sausage and a ham bone left over from Christmas. It was, in a word, yummy and will be making a reappearance on my stove very soon. The directions called for a can of tomatoes and vinegar, and I thought it was going to be weird, but they blended in well and added a hint of sweetness without over powering the beans and meats.

[DanM]

Gazpacho is a summer favorite with sentimental value in our house (it was served at our wedding). During those cold winter months I occasionally make a hardy miso soup with hulled barley and whatever dried mushrooms are around.

Has anyone read the Moosewood book on soups? It is on my short list of books to buy.

Dan

[merstar]

Two of my favorites:

YELLOW PEPPER SOUP:

http://www.recipezaar.com/22104

VEGETARIAN TORTILLA SOUP (I upped all the spices, topped with extra sharp cheddar along with the cilantro, added a can of corn, unsalted, and used low sodium chicken broth):

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/4421

Edited January 7, 2009 by merstar (log)

[zeffer81]

Chicken noodle soup

Minestrone

What else is light and healthy? I'm on the wedding diet!

Off topic--Nakji, I love your soup bowl. Is it Gordon Ramsay for Royal Doulton, by chance?

[vice]

i've got sort of a riff on calo verde going on the stove right now:

chorizo browned in a bit of olive oil. add to that a couple sliced carrots and leeks. when they get slightly browned around the edges, in go a healthy glug of french vermouth (only wine in the house), a few spoonfuls of crushed san marzanos, and some of the cooking water from black eyed peas. when soup is almost ready, add cooked beans and chopped bitter greens. serve with bread grilled with olive oil and rubbed with garlic.

[Jmahl]

This weekend made a lentil soup with pieces of italian sausage as kind of meatballs. we added chopped arrugala right out of the garden. Everything else looks really sad in the garden in the cold but the arrugala seems to love the chill.

Jmahl

[Reconstructing Dinner]

So far this year, I've made

Thanksgiving leftovers soup -- chicken broth with turkey, green beans and, yes, left over sweet potatoes -- with swiss chard. The sweet potatoes add a sweetness and body. I had smoked the turkey, so the soup had a good depth of flavor.

And Black Eyed Peas leftovers soup -- chicken broth with black eyed peas, farro and, well, beets. The color was down right disturbing, but the flavors worked surprisingly well. Maybe not a do-again, but not bad for a clean out the fridge kind of a soup.

Having used up just about all the holiday leftovers in the house, tonight I made Tom Yum with black sea bass and clams. This was my first time making fish stock, and I will definitely do it again. And, of course, there is nothing like fish sauce and Thai chilies to make you feel alive.

RD

Edited January 7, 2009 by Reconstructing Dinner (log)

[nakji]

Seasoned with some cayenne pepper, and spiked with goldfish crackers.

Bread or crackers on the side, that is the question for soup. I am a bread person, myself, but allow that with tomato soup, it's got to be goldfish. Or grilled cheese.

Or both.

Off topic--Nakji, I love your soup bowl. Is it Gordon Ramsay for Royal Doulton, by chance?

I'm not sure this is entirely off-topic, since it raises another crucial soup-related question, which is, "Deep bowl, flat bowl, or mug?"

For me, I always have a mug if there's a sandwich on the side, and it's a thinnish soup. Deep bowl for a hearty, main-dish soup; flat bowl for comp'ny. Not that I ever have comp'ny, but you know.

In this picture, as before, I have chosen my standard deep bowl, which is made by the lovely people at Muji. Gracing it is Marcella Hazan's incomparably good pasta e ceci soup, from page of 87 of Marcella's Italian Kitchen. I made it last night for today's lunch.

It took my husband and I about an hour last night to peel all the chickpeas, which we whiled away watching "the Dark Knight" - this soup is worth all the effort and olive oil (1/2 cup!) that goes into it. I even managed to find some fresh sage at the local supermarket, which I included as per the recipe, but also chopped finely along with some parsley and garlic. I mixed the herbs into yet more oil and used it as a garnish. As good as anything I've ever had in a restaurant.

[gingerfreak]

Soup is my favourite! I've made two so far this year:

- Roasted golden beet and fennel with orange zest (from Christmas leftovers)

- Roasted garlic (lots of garlic) and cauliflower with thyme and spinach

Both yummy, both feeling very healthy after the holidays.

[sadistick]

Actually made a quick soup last night as I had some veggies that were on their last legs so I figured a soup was in order...

Leeks/Carrots/Cellery/Yams/redonions simmered with some spices and a big honkin smoked turkey leg.

Added a some fava beans at the end.

Will taste tonight!

[suzilightning]

had to work the first sunday of the month so had johnnybird follow horribly detailed directions for roasting a free range chicken(he is an engineer after all). after dinner i deconstructed the bird and used all the dark meat to make a chicken veg soup with some fine egg noodles.

[Becca Porter]

I made a quick but satisfying chicken soup with dumplings from the latest Cook's Country. I rotisseried my own chicken and enhanced a box of stock with the carcass, so I am sure that improved it a bit.

The dumplings were the best part. I have finally determined that I prefer my dumplings unleavened.

Oh, and there was my utterly fabulous turkey gumbo from my grilled turkey carcass from Thanksgiving. Mmmm...

[LindaK]

One of my new years' resolutions is to make more soup.

So far, I've only managed a simple but tasty carrot-apple-ginger soup. The best part is that I have a quart in my freezer for one of those evenings when it's cold and I'm too tired and hungry to do anything but heat up soup with some bread and cheese.

Today's NYT piece by Mark Bittman on Soups from Southeast Asia has me salivating. These are my next soups.

[Fat Guy]

I just made lentil soup, using what started as the recipe from my favorite out-of-print/totally-dated soup cookbook -- "Soup, Beautiful Soup," by Felipe Rojas-Lombardi (a book I should really start a whole topic on) -- and has over the years become a completely different recipe that is pretty flexible. This time I started with finely chopped onions, celery, carrots and garlic, sauteed them in olive oil (adding the garlic later on in the process), then added a bag of cheap supermarket lentils that had been languishing in the cabinet, lots of salt and pepper and good dried oregano early on in the process, plus more salt and pepper later, a ton of fresh basil towards the end of cooking, used water as the liquid, and pureed about half the lentils with the immersion blender once the lentils were cooked through. For service, we like to stir in a teaspoon or so of mediocre fake balsamic vinegar or, for comp'ny, good Sherry vinegar in each bowl. The acidity and sweetness of these vinegars really brighten the soup.

[Matt Mark]

I've only begun to make soups. I've been working with butternut, based on Jean-Georges' "From Simple to Spectacular" and his roasted butternut. Seared with some garlic, a touch of cayenne and thyme, roasted for a bit and simmered with chicken stock until tender. Blitzed with some parmesan on top.

I want to try and make some cauliflower soup next,

Matt

[Lilija]

For dinner, Tuesday, I made my riff on thom kha gai. The last of the homemade chicken broth, steeped with a small mountain of chopped and bruised lemongrass, coriander seeds, chili paste, the juice of a lime, and strips of the rind, fish sauce, a pinch of brown sugar, garlic, and other seasonings which fail me right now. I heat all that up, to a bare simmer, and let it steep that way for a half hour to an hour.

I strain all that, bring the broth to a boil, and add a chicken breast, sliced into fine ribbons, some baby bok choi, chiffonaded, a can of baby corn, in bite sized pieces, a few razor thin sliced shallots, straw mushrooms, a handful of shrimp and a few cans of coconut milk. In bowls, topped with a lot of minced cilantro leaves.

So good. So delicate, and light, yet so filling. We had some bao in the freezer, so we had sort of a pan-Asian meal.

[nakji]

For dinner, Tuesday, I made my riff on thom kha gai. The last of the homemade chicken broth, steeped with a small mountain of chopped and bruised lemongrass, coriander seeds, chili paste, the juice of a lime, and strips of the rind, fish sauce, a pinch of brown sugar, garlic, and other seasonings which fail me right now. I heat all that up, to a bare simmer, and let it steep that way for a half hour to an hour.

Yes! yesyesyes!

I haven't made this soup in ages, thanks for putting it back on my radar. This and that New York Times article LindaK mentioned on asian chicken soups has put me in the mood for a big bowl of fragrant soup.

Blitzed with some parmesan on top.

and

For service, we like to stir in a teaspoon or so of mediocre fake balsamic vinegar or, for comp'ny, good Sherry vinegar in each bowl.

Bring up another soup question - how do you like to garnish your soups? I like a bit of pesto, olive oil, or yogurt, but I'd never thought of vinegar before.

[pedie]

Even though we are not blanketed with snow, So. California's temperatures dip in January and it is even perfect soup weather for us.

So far this year I have made a simple celery root and leek pureed soup that was delightful. Any suggestions for dressing this soup for a bit of excitement?

I also made a winter vegetable soup with squash, onion, celery, carrot, broccoli, touch of tomato, some cooked beans and kale thrown in at the end. All cooked in vegetable stock with a little fresh thyme and a rind of parmesano reggiano thrown in. Now, that's a winter soup!

And a great dish - I'll call it a soup...kind of a pasta fagiole made with Rancho Bernardo Christmas Lima beans (fantastic), onion, garlic and sauteed mushrooms and served with a large shell pasta. They begged for more! :-)

[judiu]

Even though we are not blanketed with snow, So. California's temperatures dip in January and it is even perfect soup weather for us.

So far this year I have made a simple celery root and leek pureed soup that was delightful.  Any suggestions for dressing this soup for a bit of excitement? 

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Crispy fried leeks or onions or shallots, pumpernickle croutons (to releive the plain creamy color "landscape"), chopped eggs, red pepper rouille, caviar, chopped red onions, pureed spinich or spinich dip, roasted cubed winter squash or darn near any roasted veg would work on a palate like your soup! HTH!

[BarbaraY]

A simple chicken soup four ways. I decided I need more vegetables in my diet and don't care to eat a lot of main dish salads in the winter.

I simmered some chicken thighs in chicken broth and water with celery, garlic, and onion. I removed the thighs and added to the strained broth carrots, celery, onion, cabbage, corn and green beans. When done, put the diced meat back.

Add some cooked tortellini and Parmesan cheese and it's Italian.

Add soy sauce and ginger juice, Chinese.

Tortilla strips, a couple of teaspoons tomato paste, and grated Jack cheese and it's Mexican.

A fun way to have a variety of soups from one pot.

[flacoman]

Cream of mushroom here

Shallot and garlic sweated off in olive oil and butter, mushrooms cooked up with soy and a little balsamic ,chicken stock ,thyme ,sherry and cream. Blast with stick blender,decorate with truffle oil and enjoy with garlic toast.

Makes me sweat every time !

My 2c

Jorge

Edited January 8, 2009 by flacoman (log)

[Lilija]

Here's another good one, this will be dinner on Saturday. There's a snowstorm coming, and this will be just the thing. It's relatively quick (if you have some beef stock on hand) and better still, cheap. My big soup pot of this will feed a small third world country.

Stuffed cabbage soup. It came around, once when I had all the fixins for stuffed cabbage, but in a fit of laziness decided to not roll and fuss with all the leaves.

Into the pot went ground beef, to brown, (ground pork, lamb and veal work good, in fact, if you get your mitts on the meatloaf mix, use that) Then, diced onions, lots of sliced cabbage, garlic, black pepper, red pepper flakes, some salt and lots of fresh dill, all sweated a bit.

Next, a big can of crushed tomatoes, and enough beef broth to make it soupy. Then a small bag of sauerkraut, a reasonable handful of rice (not too much) and a bunch of sliced up good Polish butcher kielbasa (brown it first, or not. I've done it both ways, I actually like it unbrowned).

This gets simmered till it all kinda looks soupy and wilted, maybe an hour. The only garnish this needs is more fresh dill, and the only side it calls for is buttered rye.

This is a serious soup. If you take the time to really drain the ground beef, it's healthy, even.